The last time dirt bike racing fans saw Mayla Herrick, she was being carted off High Point Raceway with a concussion suffered in the second moto of the High Point Nationals; she was coming off a victory in her series debut the previous day. Now, one week before she gets back to business in Round 4 of the Women’s Pro Motocross series, she has won the first moto of the Women’s division on Day 1 of the Loretta Lynn’s Amateur Nationals in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee.
Herrick started the race in fourth and showed patience on the way to the front. She passed Piper Bell and Kelsey Harris on the first lap and took the lead away from holeshot winner Hannah Hodges on Lap 2 after posting he fastest lap of the race.
Herrick walked away from the field and stretched her advantage to more than 30 seconds as attention turned to the battle for the podium.
Hodges and Bell seemed to have the podium wrapped up until they looked over their shoulders and saw the veteran Jordan Jarvis coming through the field. A terrible start showed her in 17th at the start, but she climbed to fourth before the field completed three trips around the track.
Jarvis was in a podium spot by Lap 6 and moved around Hodges for second the next time the women flashed under the finish line.
Herrick had such a massive lead, she decided to make things interesting.
With three laps remaining, Herrick crashed and allowed Jarvis to close the distance to 20 seconds. Herrick crashed again on the final lap and as the leaders navigated lapped traffic, Herrick ultimately squeaked out the victory by less than two-tenths of a second.
Hodges secured the final podium position with Bell finishing fourth.
Altus Motorsports bLUcRU Yamaha’s Zoe Moore rounded out the top five.
